The present invention relates to quaternary ammonium salt mixtures having softening and antistatic properties for natural and synthetic textiles or mixtures thereof. More particularly, the present invention relates to quaternary ammonium salt mixtures which are liquid at room temperature.
At the present time, the softening compositions used for textile conditioning after the washing cycle, are essentially cationic products such as dialkyldimethyl ammonium chlorides or alkylamido alkyl imidazolines. The alkyl chains present in these compounds essentially result from hydrogenated or unhydrogenated tallow. These cationic products, most of which are quaternary ammonium compounds, are in the form of a paste constituted of about 75% quaternary ammonium salt in a mixture of isopropyl alcohol and water. However, the textile softeners generally are commercialized in the form of an aqueous dispersion containing from 2 to 9% quaternary ammonium salt. This dispersion is generally prepared by heating the starting quaternary ammonium salt to a temperature higher than 40.degree. C., and then dispersing the quaternary ammonium salt containing liquid in hot water.
A drawback of this type of product resides in the fact that the starting material is pasty and that two operations are required to present it in a commercializable suitable form. Also, the quaternary ammonium salt content of these aqueous dispersions is strictly limited to a maximum of 9%, because, at higher contents, gel formation results and the dispersion becomes unstable.
In order to overcome these drawbacks, it has been proposed to use cyclic derivatives of the imidazoline type. These latter are not completely liquid at room temperature but they are dispersible in the cold state. However, these products have lower softening properties and they are less stable to storage.
Other cationic products, liquid at room temperature and having softening properties, are also known in the art, but these products have various disadvantages, such as instability in an aqueous medium, low performance with regard to softening properties, or still gel formation at concentrations higher than 9%. Quaternary dialkyl esters, alkyltrimethylammonium chlorides, and dialkyldimethyl ammonium chlorides having short alkyl chains, are examples of these products.
There is, therefore, a need for a concentrated softening composition which is liquid, easily handable at room temperature and readily dispersible in cold water; and that would reduce the time required for preparation of the composition and which would avoid treatments which present some danger such as that which is due to the flash point of isopropyl alcohol contained in the paste.